When foster youth age out of the foster care system, they can find themselves in difficult financial situations: They often have very low incomes, don’t have credit, and don’t have a rental history — which can make it devastatingly difficult to find housing and thrive in the extremely high cost of living bay area.
So one legislator, Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese, has put forward a proposal, currently under development, for a pilot program in which the county would give each youth transitioning out of foster care $1,000 a month. Cortese says foster youth could benefit from non-prescriptive financial support and are a good incubator group for an experiment with the universal basic income model.
“We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that it works, for the sake of the young people, and we hope other counties around us and throughout the state will take a look at it if it is working, and maybe this will catch on.” — Dave Cortese
A segment from our radio show, “Civic.” Listen daily at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on 102.5 FM in San Francisco.
